Back To Reality
by boop-oop-ee-doo
Summary: Sequel to Stranded. Nearly a year has passed since House and co were rescued. Under the stress of weddings, pregnancies, new jobs, and the general stress of life at Princeton-Plainsborough, can the relationships formed on the island stay strong?
1. Evil Cuddy And The Little Wombat

Disclaimer: I don't own House M.D.

AN: Sorry I took so long to start this, but I got a little distracted by some other projects, and I'm in year 12, so homework takes up a lot of my time. This takes place about six months after the epilogue of Stranded. Enjoy!

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It was 7 AM on a perfect New Jersey morning when the sound of an alarm clock shattered the peaceful silence of Doctor Gregory House's apartment. His girlfriend and boss, Doctor Lisa Cuddy, cracked an eye open, sighing. She turned to House, shaking him gently.

"Greg! Greg, wake up!" House groaned, but didn't stir. Cuddy, dressed in one of House's T-shirts, climbed out of bed, pulling the covers off of him. "Come on sleepyhead, my car's at the mechanic so you have to drive me to work today, remember? Being on time might not be important to you, but for me it's actually quite a pressing concern." House put his pillow over his head, and Cuddy sighed, about to give up and call Wilson for a lift, when an idea came to her. "If you get up, I'll let you share my shower." House sat bolt upright, reaching for the bottle of pills on his bedside table, before getting out of bed.

"You are evil" he growled, dry-swallowing two Vicodin pills while Cuddy smirked and handed him his cane.

About an hour later, House hobbled grumpily into the diagnostics conference room at Princeton-Plainsborough Teaching Hospital, where his four fellows were waiting for him. Two of them, however, were distracted, paying no attention to their boss's arrival. Thirteen was bouncing 6-month old Christopher Chase on her knee, while her boyfriend Lawrence Kutner crouched in front of him, making funny faces that extracted as many giggles from Thirteen as they did from the baby. House raised an eyebrow at them.

"What's the Little Wombat doing here?" he asked, using the nickname that he had attached to Chase and Cameron's son before the little boy was even born.

"There's been an outbreak of measles in the hospital day-care centre" Thirteen explained, looking up. "Christopher hasn't been vaccinated yet, and Cameron doesn't want him to catch it."

"And he's with you instead of Cameron because.."

"Because the E.R is no place for a baby" said Cameron, entering the room and dropping a file on the table. Christopher's green eyes lit up at the sight of his mother, his tiny hands grasping at the pink material of her scrubs as she lifted him from Thirteen's lap. "You've got a case" she said, indicating the file before turning to Thirteen, smiling. "Thanks for watching Christopher for me."

"No problem, he's an angel, you know we all love him" Thirteen replied, while Kutner nodded in agreement.

"Yeah" said Cameron, her smile widening a little. "Amber's got the day off so she's going to come and take him for me." House made no attempt to stop the huge guffaw that escaped from his mouth.

"Cutthroat Bitch with the baby? Ha!"

"She's actually really good with him" said Cameron, eyes narrowing slightly.

"Yeah" Thirteen agreed, defending her now closest friend.

"When Wilson's around, sure" said House. "But don't be surprised if you come home and find out your kid's been sacrificed to the Devil." Everyone rolled their eyes. Despite all they had been through, House was still House.


	2. Four Women, A Baby, And A Diagnostician

Disclaimer: I don't own House M.D.

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House sent the ducklings off to run tests on their new patient, and before long, after all the usual possibilities had been ruled out, House went to Cuddy's office to get permission to carry out his latest diagnostically brilliant but completely unethical plan. It was amazing to some how good the pair were at keeping their work and home lives separate. Or at least they were most of the time. An incident involving the two of them becoming trapped in a broken-down elevator a few months after their rescue had turned out to be extremely embarrassing for all involved, except House who had simply yelled at the maintenance guy to shut the door and piss off.

When House reached Cuddy's office and peeked inside, the sight he found made him instantly spin around and begin to hobble away. Cuddy, Cameron, Amber, and Thirteen, who had set off to find Cameron after she realised that the blonde immunologist had left her son's diaper bag in the conference room, were all there, cooing over baby Christopher. The relationship between the four women had changed dramatically since their experiences on the deserted island they had found themselves stranded on just over a year ago. Cuddy and Cameron, just casual acquaintances before, were now close friends. The biggest change occurred between Thirteen and Amber, going from worst enemies to best friends with one heroic gesture. The friendship the two had formed had also taught House the quite useful information that Amber, if you had truly earned her trust, respect, and friendship, was fiercely loyal. Make an enemy of the bitch's friends, and you'd be making an enemy of the Cutthroat Bitch herself, and she could be a dangerous enemy. Unless a certain little wombat was around, in which case she would suddenly change from a Cutthroat Bitch to a blithering pile of maternal mush like every other woman House knew. He decided that he would wait and come back when Christopher was gone, knowing he wouldn't get anything but baby-talk from Cuddy while the little boy was there. Unfortunately, the Dean of Medicine spotted him, and threw open her office door, calling him back.

"Greg!" House froze. Cuddy never called him Greg at work unless A) they were experiencing a rare slip in the maintenance of their almost perfect double lives, or B) she was about to make him do something that he was really, _really_ going to hate. Seeing as they were currently neither trapped in an elevator or locked in her office with the blinds closed, he guessed it was the latter. Cuddy almost always won using this strategy, and sometimes even used it in non-hospital matters, catching her boyfriend off guard with the rare use of his first name at work. House turned slowly, bracing himself for what was to come.

"Yes, Lisa dear?" he replied, plastering an obviously fake smile on his face.

"Very funny" Cuddy deadpanned, rolling her eyes. "Look, Amber wanted me to remind you that tomorrow afternoon you have to go with Wilson and Chase to get your tuxedo fitted for the wedding." House's face paled, and Amber, with Christopher on her hip and his diaper bag slung over her shoulder, exited the office, smirking, while Thirteen and Cameron followed, wearing similar amused expressions.

"You!" House yelled, pointing accusingly at his friend's fiance'. "This is all your fault, Cutthroat Bitch!"

"No it's not" said Amber, attempting to feign innocence, though her lips remained curled in a slight smirk. "James booked the fitting. I'm just the messenger."

"I still blame you!" House grumbled. "If you weren't marrying him, I wouldn't have to put up with the evils of shopping for formal wear!"

"But Amber wouldn't be marrying Wilson if he hadn't proposed" said Thirteen, trying not to laugh.

"Yeah" Cameron agreed. "Doesn't that make it his fault?" House paused for a moment, thinking.

"You're right" he said eventually. "Excuse me ladies, I have to go harass our favourite oncologist. I haven't annoyed him anywhere near enough today anyway." As House hobbled off to locate and terrorise Wilson, the four women left behind collapsed into fits of giggles. Sometimes, they found themselves wondering how they'd ever got on without each other.

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AN: The next chapter will include lots of Huddy and Wilber fluff, as well as the Tuxedo-fitting adventures of House, Chase, and Wilson.


	3. Mommy Duties

Disclaimer: I don't own House M.D.

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That night, House sat outside Cuddy's office, waiting for her to finish the last of her paperwork so he could drive her home. This was his favourite part of the day. Not the waiting of course, that was quickly growing tedious, and if Wilson hadn't gone home already he would have left a note with Cuddy's secretary and gone to annoy his friend some more. No, the reason that this was his favourite part of the day was because it was the time of day when he and his girlfriend could stop being House and Cuddy, and start being Greg and Lisa. After about ten more minutes, Cuddy emerged from the office.

"Done!" She declared, planting a kiss on House's lips as she helped him to his feet. He had been trying to cut down on the amount of vicodin he took over the past year, which meant that he was usually in a great deal of pain by the end of the day. Lucky for him, then, that he had an extremely attentive girlfriend to massage the crippled limb and help him take his mind off the pain. As the two doctors headed for the hospital's exit, Cameron passed them, looking extremely eager to get to wherever she was going. Of course, anyone who knew Cameron at all and had been witness to the events earlier in the day would have known exactly where she was going, and exactly why she was so eager to get there.

"Hurry, Cameron!" House called after the younger doctor as she passed, "You should be just in time to save the little wombat from being used in a Satanic ritual!" Cuddy and Cameron glanced at each other, both rolling their eyes, before Cameron kept walking. She had missed her baby boy today. When he was in the day-care centre she always dropped by to see him on her lunch break, or when she had a spare couple of minutes. And, she usually had a little buddy to keep her company to keep her company when she had to wait for Chase to get out of surgery. She couldn't wait for Chase today though, and he had been perfectly understanding. Mommy duties came first.

When Wilson had arrived home a little while before, he was greeted with the sight of Amber kneeling on the carpet, playing peek-a-boo with little Christopher.

"Hi, Honey" he smiled, leaning down to kiss his fiance', then looking over to Christopher. "Hey there, little guy." Christopher giggled, a special, extra happy giggle reserved for people he was familiar with. "Chase told me you were watching him. How'd you go?"

"Fine" said Amber, standing and lifting Christopher into her arms before settling herself onto the couch, Wilson sitting down beside her. "Chase and Cameron are lucky, he's a really easy kid. And having him for the day kind of gave me a chance to think about some stuff."

"Like what?" Wilson asked.

"Remember on the night Christopher was born when I said that we were never having children?"

"Yes."

"Well, I've kind of reconsidered that.. If you don't mind."

"Not at all" Wilson grinned. "If it'll make you happy, I'll be happy. Although, we should probably get the wedding out of the way before we start planning a nursery."

"Of course we're going to wait until after the wedding!" cried Amber, blushing slightly."I didn't mean I wanted a baby right now. In a few years, maybe." A few minutes later, the doorbell rang. "That must be Cameron." Amber stood, Christopher in her arms, and went to open the door. Christopher squealed in delight at the sight of his mother, reaching out for her with his tiny arms. Cameron beamed, taking her baby boy from Amber and kissing his hair.

"Hey, buddy. Did you have a nice day with Auntie Amber?" The baby giggled, and Cameron smiled, turning to Amber. "How was he?"

"Perfect, no trouble at all."

"Great, thanks for having him." Cameron poked her head through the door to say a quick hello to Wilson, then headed home.

The next afternoon, Wilson drove his car up to the front of the tailor's, and he, Chase, and House piled out of it.

"Onward, gentlemen, to hell!" House cried, pointing his cane dramatically. Wilson turned to Chase, sighing. This was going to be a long day.


	4. The Evils Of Shopping For Formal Wear

Disclaimer: I don't own House M.D.

AN: Sorry its been so long between updates, I've had exams.

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Meanwhile, back at the hospital, Foreman, Kutner, and Taub were sharing lunch with the women of the group, minus Amber, who was working. Baby Christopher sat bouncing in Cameron's lap. The hospital's day care still wasn't safe for him, so the gang had spent the morning taking turns at looking after him, in a little game that House had dubbed "Pass the wombat". Cameron had kept him for a while in the morning while she caught up on paper work, but the E.R had soon descended into it's usual state of chaos, so she passed Christopher on to his Father, who had not been busy at the time. Unfortunately, Chase was called into surgery not long after, so he had given the baby to Wilson, but Wilson had to meet with a patient, so he gave Christopher to Foreman, who quickly passed him off to Thirteen and Kutner, the ducklings who were best with him. But then their patient had gone into cardiac arrest, and the ducklings had been forced to leave little Christopher with House. After an apparently chaotic few minutes involving a dirty diaper and a near disastrous Vicodin incident while House had his back turned, he had for once made a responsible call and decided that the Little Wombat would be safer with Cuddy, and there he had stayed until now, when he had been passed back to his mother, at least for a little while.

"So" said Kutner, looking around at everyone. "How do you think Wilson and Chase are going with House at the tailor?" Cuddy just smirked. If she knew her boyfriend, and she did, he was not going to make the experience easy for them...

"I'm bored" House announced, watching Wilson get his tux fitted while he and Chase waited for their turn.

"I know" Chase groaned. "You've mentioned it ten times in the past five minutes."

"I need you to entertain me" said House.

"No" Chase replied.

"Oh, come on. How about you play proud Daddy and show me the photo of the Little Wombat that I know you've got in your wallet, and I can pretend to care about how cute you think he is. It'll be fun."

"Fine" Chase sighed, reaching for his wallet. He hated giving in to House, but he couldn't resist the urge to show off his son, who, in his admittedly biased opinion, was the cutest kid on the planet. He smiled at the photo himself before showing it to his former boss. "There he is."

"Now he is precious!" said House sarcastically. "I could just eat him up, couldn't you?" Chase rolled his eyes.

"I'm done" said Wilson after a while, stepping away from the tailor. "They want you next, House."

"No!" House cried, his face pale. "Please, anything but that!" The diagnostician nudged Chase forward with his cane. "Take him, take him instead!"

"Hey!" Chase yelled in objection. Wilson sighed.

"Look House, just do it, okay? The sooner you do it, the sooner you can stop complaining about it."

"Okay" House groaned, pulling out his bottle of Vicodin and dry-swallowing a few. "But look at what you made me just do, Wilson" he waved the bottle", " And I am trying ever so hard to cut down. You may have just ruined all the progress I've made." Wilson, with the stern expression of a father ordering his child into a corner when they had misbehaved, pointed to the tailor. "I hate you" House growled, reluctantly making his way over to the tailor.


End file.
